St. Barbara - Divine Mercy Parish

St. Barbara's History

Since the church originated when mining was a flourishing industry, it seemed appropriate to make St. Barbara, patroness of miners, our patron saint. Her 11ft. statue constructed of limestone stands in front of the school. It was presented to Fr. Reichlin in June of 1953 by Fr. Hilary A. Zwisler, the previous pastor, as a gift to our parish community. Church history tells us that St. Barbara was a young virgin and martyr of the early church (approximately 235 A.D.). According to legend, she was the daughter of Dioscorus, a rich heathen who lived during the reign of Emperor Maximian. Dioscorus wanted her to marry one of the young men of Maximian's court, but she refused. During her father's absences, she lived in a tower. Once to help explain the theory of the Trinity, Barbara had three windows built into a bathhouse he was having constructed. When her father returned and found what she had done, he took her to the provincial prefect because he didn't want to appear harsh in punishing her. The prefect ordered her to be tortured and tried to get Barbara to give up her beliefs in Jesus, but she refused. Dioscorus took her up a mountain and tried to get her to recant her beliefs. She refused again and her father killed her. As he came down from the mountain, he was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes. The exact area of St Barbara's death is uncertain—cities in Egypt and Syria , and places in Antioch and Rome having been named for her. She is patroness of miners, artillerymen, architects, prisoners, and stonemasons. St. Barbara is invoked against thunderstorms, fire, lightning and sudden death. Her emblems are a tower, palm, chalice and a cannon. Relics of St. Barbara are in both Burano, Italy and Kief Russia. G.K. Chesterton celebrates her in the poem, “The Ballad of St. Barbara” There is also a large metal plaque erected on a parapet at Del Morro Castle in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico inscribed: St. Barbara, Patroness of Artillerymen. St. Barbara's feast day is December 4th and the Byzantine Rite still honors her on this date. In the middle of the last century, long before steel dominated the industry in our area, men worked in the local coalmines. The great exodus of families from Europe and the British Isles in the early decades of the nineteenth century furnished Massillon and surrounding communities with the sturdy men needed for that type of work. Some of these men, mainly German, settled with their families in West Brookfield close to their jobs. Many had emigrated from Alsace Lorraine, an area located between France and Germany and north of Switzerland , which contained a high percentage of Roman Catholics. Natives of Wuerttenberg, Baden and Bavaria , all in Germany , also came to West Brookfield . At that time, St. Mary's Massillon was the only Catholic Church. The difficulties of distance, conveyance and inclement weather had to be met and constantly endured if our ancestors were to practice their religion. No doubt, these conditions played a major role in the founding of St. Barbara's Parish. There is an old record extant which reads as follows: “In January 1866 the Catholics of West Brookfield met, that with the permission of the Right Rev. Bishop of Cleveland Amadeus Rappe